T'Lorah's Tale
by Kate Davis
Summary: What may have happened to Paris and Torres' children when Voyager made it home? (Deals with issues of racism) NB: Written prior to season 7
1. T'Lorah's Tale - Part 1

TITLE: T'LORAH'S TALE  
AUTHOR: Kate Davis  
EMAIL: dreamtv_wacko99@yahoo.com - I love feedback!  
RATING: PG  
STATUS: This version is submitted in three parts - all complete  
TIMELINE Info: The bulk of this story occurs about 20 years after the Voyager setting.  
SPOILERS: None  
ARCHIVE: The answer will probably be yes, but please email me first anyway.  
SUMMARY: What might have happened to the married Paris/Torres if Voyager returned home? This is the story of their daughter, T'Lorah Paris, and it takes place on Earth. The story jumps back to other times, the oldest of which is on Voyager where he and B'Elanna have married and they have two children.   
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my first attempt at any sort of Fan Fiction, so please keep that in mind when reading this and when supplying feedback. Note that I have taken poetic license so please forgive me if the correct terminology is not used. Oh, and the Shakespeare quote at the end is supposed to be Sam Tanner's view of T'Lorah Paris.  
DISCLAIMER: Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres, Kathryn Janeway and all the other Star Trek: Voyager characters, scenes and objects remain the property of Paramount Pictures and Viacom - I'm just borrowing them. T'Lorah Kathryn Paris, Greg Paris and Sam Tanner are mine and if anyone wants to use them e-mail me! Quote reproduced without permission.  
  
Any feedback, be it praise or criticism, is appreciated.  
SPECIAL NOTE: Please review my story after you've finished reading it - I guarantee to read & review one of your pieces in return. If you give a review that shows some thought has gone into it, I'll review at least three of your works.  
  
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T'LORAH'S TALE - PART 1/3  
  
A pretty young woman sat staring blankly at the Starfleet Commander, who droned on incessantly about warp engine carbonators. Her deep brown eyes occasionally drifted to the window and beyond. How she longed to leave the Earth's surface and race through the stars at high warp, but she was only in her first year at the academy - not even far enough into the course to observe a test flight. Of course she'd been to a few space stations for vacations, but she was desperate to escape her father's watchful eye and fly herself. She wasn't taking in anything the Commander said, nor did she respond when he called on her to name the parts of the carbonator.  
  
"Ms Paris!" the Commander bellowed.  
  
The girl clicked out of her trance.  
"The parts of the carbonator if you don't mind!" he repeated sternly, directing the harmless laser pointer at the group monitor at the front of the room. She got up slowly and walked to the front and took the laser from him.  
  
"Outer metabolic casing, tangible rim coils, minapola cooler, plasma projector and the plasma cylinder," she recited, pointing to each as she recalled the names her mother had taught her years before, then she handed back the laser.  
  
"Very well, I guess you were paying attention. Please continue to do so."   
  
But as she returned to her seat, she returned to her daydreaming. She had learnt all facets of the first year course previously at Starfleet camps for a selected few whose potential for success had been identified. Both her mother and father had drilled her on strange words and various controls of a starship, often on her asking, though changes were being made all the time. She still had to attend the classes to gain ranks, which rendered the gifted programs useless.  
  
"Class is over for today, enjoy your three day break. Keep practising your terms for the exam on the warp engine next week."  
  
Kathryn grabbed her picture padds and portable computer and left the room. She, however, still had another class to go before the weekend. As other cadets raced happily out of the Academy doors, she raced through the emptying corridors, to the opposite end. She took her place in the middle on the right hand side; grateful for once she'd beaten the lecturer. These were the only classes that challenged her mind and she loved every minute of them.   
  
"Excuse me. Is this the First Year Extension Course in Engineering?"  
  
Kathryn looked up from her computer to see a young man, roughly her age looking right back at her.  
"Ah... yes. It is", she found herself replying, trying to keep her voice stable.  
  
"Thank goodness" he replied taking a seat at the front.  
  
The scientist arrived then and instantly began the class. Today it was on the potential affects of a new substance called mekalonia on warp propulsion.   
Despite the interesting topic, she was glad to see the weekend.  
  
"Excuse me! Hello!" A voice called as she exited the Academy. She spun around.  
It was the guy from Engineering Extension.  
  
"Um do you how to get to... to... (pulling paper from his pocket) to Yolanni Estate?"  
  
"Yolanni? Oh there's a hoverbus when classes end normally... now you have to hail a passing hoverdome or walk." Kathryn paused. "I live on Yolanni..."  
  
"Really? I'll do whatever you do then... I mean can I go with you?"  
  
"I usually walk to keep up my fitness but if you'll split the cost of a hoverdome we could share that."  
  
"Alright."  
  
The young man was clever at hailing the speeding things down and they threw their stuff and piled in after it.  
"Plot 5 on Yolanni housing estate, please." Kathryn stated, slotting in her card and looking over at the man next to her.  
  
"Where to buddy?" croaked an alien voice.  
  
"Ah... I'm with her." He replied clumsily slotting in his card in order to halve the cost.  
The hoverdome pulled into the sky and into a steady stream of hoverdomes.  
  
"Pardon?" Kathryn whispered. "You are not with me!"  
  
"Sorry I'm not used to dealing with different species - there aren't many away from the spaceports. Plus I live two plots down from you. I'm sorry I should have explained myself earlier. I moved from Denver to attend this Academy... best in the country, you know. I'm first year obviously, like you." Getting no response he continued. "Ah... my name's Sam."  
  
"Just Sam?"  
  
"Samuel Mark Tanner, so sorry madam. And you are?"  
  
The hoverdome pulled up at her home and they both piled out. It hummed away.  
Getting no response he tried "How you finding First Year?"  
  
"I've done it all before. I'd drop out and start second year but I'm not allowed because I started school so young. I only go for the extension classes at the end of the day."  
  
"I started school normally at five, Training school at eleven and was accepted early into the academy when I sat the test at seventeen - youngest ever in Denver. After the one year break I started at the Academy this year," Sam boasted.  
  
"But only a year early. I began school at four, was doing extension lessons at nine and got a scholarship to Training school at age ten. I sat the Academy entrance test at sixteen and after the year break started this year. I wanted to start straight away but the break is regulatory," she retaliated in a bored tone, making it sound like she didn't really care.  
  
"You're only eighteen?"  
  
"Yes, two years too young."  
  
"That's what you get for living in San Francisco - the Starfleet State."  
  
"That's what you get for having a Commanding officer for a father and a top ranking engineer for a mother. Both who flew numerous missions. Excuse me, but I've got to go."  
  
"Oh, please tell me, what is your name?"  
  
"Kathryn."  
  
"Just Kathryn?"  
  
"Kathryn Paris, then."  
  
"That's a beautiful name - it suits you perfectly." Sam said with a smirk.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You heard me."  
  
"I'm trying to forgive your forwardness but I don't think that's possible. If I told my father what you said..."  
  
"I apologise, but I don't take it back. I feel like I've known you for... there aren't many like you."  
  
"Don't be silly. There are hundreds of girls in San Francisco, and the Academy comes first. I'm going to be a captain with my own ship."  
  
"Me too."  
  
"Don't mock me."  
  
"I'm not. I've never told anyone my true ambition before. I want to follow my father into a captaincy."  
  
"Can I tell you something? Something you must never repeat? She dropped her voice to a hush and sat on the porch. Sam dropped beside her.  
  
"My full name is T'Lorah Kathryn Paris."  
  
"T'Lorah? That sounds almost... almost Klingon."  
  
"It is Klingon. Starfleet officials have barred me from using it. My mother was... I am Klingon."  
  
"You?" Sam looked into her smooth pale skin and her deep brown eyes. She had medium-length blond hair that was piled on top of head, and a few strands had been allowed to fall casually onto her shoulders, framing her picturesque face. She was certainly uncommonly beautiful... there wasn't even a hint of those hideous characteristic brow ridges.  
  
"Yes. I really must go inside now. She got up and touched in the code on the front door and it slid smoothly open with a soft hiss.   
Sam got up, pulling out the paper from his pocket. "This has my comm signal on it if you want to reach me. Can I walk you to the academy tomorrow?"  
  
"I have an early start. 0800 hours - a pilot simulation, I think."  
  
"Oh" Sam replied. "See you in Extension Coding & Communication then? Perhaps we could walk home together."  
  
"Alright, father will be glad if I'm accompanied."  
  
With that, he walked down the path below the hoverdome lane looked around, then went left.  
Kathryn looked briefly at the paper. 'It certainly was unusual to use such a material anymore!' she thought to herself, ' and certainly not in San Francisco!', before stuffing it into the folds of her Starfleet jacket and disappearing inside.  
  
* * *  
  
He was waiting for her at the door to their classroom after class the next day. She was secretly glad and smiled to herself. She was the last cadet to gather their things and leave the room.  
  
"Hello", he said and smiled in a way that made her stomach flip and her heart pound.  
They started towards the door and were out on the street before she spoke.  
  
"Is it alright if we take a hoverdome? I'm so tired I can hardly walk... I didn't get much sleep last night."  
  
"Of course." He hailed one immediately and they performed the same ritual as the day before.  
Sam didn't speak again until the hoverdome had pulled away from Kathryn's door.  
  
"I'm sorry that I feel the need to ask and please don't take it the wrong way. I'm finding it hard to believe you have Klingon blood in you. You aren't at all like what they said back in Denver... ferocious and unrelenting, uncaring and inhumane, and you, you look so, so... not like one of 'them'," Sam tried to cover his distaste.   
Kathryn was immediately on the defence.  
  
"Well I am, very much so - my maternal grandmother was a full-blooded Klingon and my mother had the characteristics of a Klingon. My other grandparents and my father were all humans. My mother and brother were taken prisoner during the Klingon War eight years ago. They, along with all the other Klingons were held in the huge compounds - prisoners of war. Those on Earth were divided about the prisoners but united against stopping the Klingons destroying the planet. One stray Federation ship took shots at the power domes on the compound my relatives were in. The shots triggered massive explosions around the compound, especially the force fields, fire consumed everything and everyone. There was nowhere to escape to and I lost my mother and brother forever. I was meant to be in that compound - as one quarter Klingon I should have been taken prisoner too. But I'd been awarded that darn scholarship and my paternal grandfather had been a Starfleet Admiral, they used those reasons before knocking me unconscious on the floor of our home and letting me live. I know the real reason though - it was because I didn't look like them. They said it would be like punishing one of their own."  
  
"Kathryn..."  
  
"Every time I hear that name it sounds like a lie, as if I'm someone I'm not." Kathryn interrupted, louder than she meant.  
  
The door slid open behind them "T'Lorah is that you?." The man's voice drifted off, noticing the human stranger seated next to his daughter, "ah Kathryn..."  
  
"It's okay Dad, I told him - it's no secret besides... we kind of made it one."  
  
Sam jumped up, noticing the commander badge. "Sir! Cadet Samuel Tanner. Just started at the San Francisco Academy. Pleasure to meet you, Commander."  
  
"At ease Sam. I'm Commander Thomas Paris... but I don't really go in for that starfleet crap anymore, (he brought his fingers up to lightly stroke the badge) not since they... just wear the badge because it reminds me of... are you coming in Kathryn?"  
  
"Just a second Dad." The door slid shut.  
  
"Sorry, he's never been the same since my mother died. Sometimes I want to leave the Starfleet program, they betrayed... mother would have wanted to me to stay, because of my potential. He agrees with that, so I stay. I have a lot to prove. No Klingon loyalties to begin with."  
  
"Kathryn I... "  
  
"You'd better go, Sam."  
  
He looked dejected. "I'm sorry if I..."  
  
Kathryn got up and went inside. She didn't even hear the rest of what he said. She quickly wiped away a tear that had threatened to embarrass her and was the cause of her abrupt exit.  
  
"Dad thanks for that, really."  
  
"T'Lorah, why are you repeating personal details to someone you don't even know?"  
  
"Sam's kind, he..."  
  
"Haven't I warned you about telling of your Klingon heritage to strangers? For all we know he's going to shoot you dead in the street one day."  
  
"You also told me never to lie if someone asked and to be proud of my heritage!"  
  
"Just be more careful... B'Elanna would... I... you're all I've got and to lose you would mean..."  
"I know Dad, he seemed sincere - I was in the wrong, I guess I made a mistake."  
  
"Without B'Elanna and Greg..."  
  
"Dad I know." She left him then, and disappeared into another room.  
  
Greg was her older brother. He'd been taken too because of those damn brow ridges across his forehead and his tanned skin. No one had believed that she was B'Elanna's daughter or Greg's sister, and she was only alive because of it. They'd left her and only because she looked like a 'real' human.  
  
Tom Paris eased himself into a chair, watching his daughter leave. She was so much like her mother, so determined, so strong and beautiful. But she was Earthly beautiful, not exotically beautiful like her mother and T'Lorah had never suffered emotionally like he had at the loss of her - that must be the Klingon in her. As usual, his thoughts drifted to his days in the Academy, his time on Voyager and his time with B'Elanna. How he had loved that woman! He had never been able to describe what he felt to himself, let alone to her. He thought of the terrible conditions in which she and their son spent their last year - held prisoner on the ground under guards that had once obeyed her command. It was a daily ritual for Tom to punish himself for not being here when the 'alien' sweeper teams arrived. Deep down he knew he couldn't have stopped them - they would have killed him. They nearly killed T'Lorah, because she began to scream and cry as her mother and brother disappeared. They had given her a blow to the back of the head and he'd found her sprawled on her stomach on the living room floor, surrounded by blood - not all of it hers. He'd run home after hearing what Starfleet had decided, thinking they'd all be gone. The overwhelming sense of relief he had felt when he realised they had at least left her for him, flooded back over him. Everyday, T'Lorah's eyes reminded him of his B'Elanna - the years they had spent together and the treacherous way in which he lost her and their son. Even now he cried silently to himself, stuck at a painful reality between devastated and thankful...  
  
* * *  
  
Continued in T'LORAH'S TALE - PART 2. Please read the whole story!  



	2. T'Lorah's Tale - Part 2

  
See Part 1 for story information and disclaimers.  
  
T'LORAH'S TALE - PART 2/3  
(This sections jumps all over the timeline)  
  
* * *  
VOYAGER  
  
"Come on B'Elanna, you can do it!" Tom cried out.  
  
B'Elanna let out a horrific, inhuman sound and then her body relaxed.  
  
"Tom, B'Elanna, you have a beautiful baby daughter" stated The Doctor, wrapping her in a silken cloth and handing her to Tom.  
  
"Look, B'Elanna, she has your eyes." Tom spoke softly, kissing the top of his daughter's head and placing her in B'Elanna's arms. But the woman did not utter a word, as a smile developed across her whole face and she drifted off to sleep.  
  
When her eyes fluttered open a few hours later, she was lying in the sickbay bed, Tom holding the baby next to her.  
  
"What do you want to name her, Belle?"  
  
"I've always loved the human name Laura", replied B'Elanna taking the baby in her arms and looking into her face for the first time, "but I'd like to give her a name to remind her of her heritage. What about a similar Klingon name... T'Lorah?"  
  
"It's perfect. How about giving her the Captain's name as her middle name?"  
  
"T'Lorah Kathryn Paris. It's beautiful, just like she is", but there was a tone of sadness in her voice.  
  
"Are you feeling alright?"  
  
"It's just going to take me awhile to get used to the fact..."  
  
"B'Elanna?"  
  
"It's nothing... don't worry."  
  
"Feel like visitors?" asked Captain Janeway's voice from the sickbay door.  
  
"Sure."  
  
Tom held the baby up to the crowd. "Introducing T'Lorah Kathryn Paris."  
  
"Kathryn?" The captain repeated.  
  
"After you, of course, we both owe our lives to you, captain."  
  
"Mother, father!" called a little voice, whose owner came running in. "Look Greg, it's your little sister."  
  
"She's so tiny!"  
  
* * *  
PRESENT DAY  
  
The words echoed in his mind and the pain stabbed in his heart. It wasn't long after T'Lorah's birth that they were caught up in an asteroid belt. The only way out seemed to be a fluctuating wormhole that had shaken the ship violently. When they emerged they had been faced with a planet they knew all too well. Home.  
Tom knew now that it would have been better if he had never successfully navigated that asteroid belt and wished that the wormhole had not brought them home- it hadn't been worth it. Ten years later his wife and son had been murdered and they'd still be alive if Voyager had never made it home.  
  
* * *  
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO  
  
B'Elanna carried her young daughter down the street. Passing above them, were the hoverdomes. T'Lorah begged to be put down and B'Elanna eventually gave in. The three-year-old was very independent and it was obvious she had inherited her parents' intelligence and confidence. She was opposite to her brother in every way. Although B'Elanna could feel the people staring at her daughter, who looked like a gorgeous human child, not like a half-breed Klingon at all. After the initial shock, she had gotten over caring quickly. T'Lorah ran on ahead a short way. B'Elanna quickened her pace to catch up and picked up her daughter, who howled in protest.  
  
"Put that child down you ferocious beast!" A woman's voice screamed at her from behind. The woman began beating her computer against B'Elanna's back. Tom looked down from their window and witnessed the events. By the time he made it down there, B'Elanna had had to put T'Lorah down in order to keep from toppling over. Determined to keep from attacking the woman in front of her daughter, B'Elanna began trying to dodge the blows and grab the computer, knowing she could have taken her out with one punch.  
  
"B'Elanna!" She heard Tom's voice.  
  
He was at her side in a moment, grabbing the computer from the woman and tossing it to the ground. T'Lorah began crying and ran to her father, hugging him from behind as he helped B'Elanna to her feet.  
  
"Why, may I ask and you beating this woman?!" Tom snarled.  
  
"She was kidnapping that human child, the savage beast!", she shouted hysterically," Goodness knows what would have happened to her!"  
  
"Daddy!" moaned T'Lorah. The woman flinched.  
  
"If she's your daughter I'd thought you'd be grateful! You just can't trust their type..."  
  
"This child is my daughter and the woman you were beating is my wife and her mother so next time mind your own business!"  
  
The woman stood there, mouth open. Under her breath he heard her mutter "shouldn't allow that sort of behaviour here on Earth... inter-breeding only brings everyone else problems."  
  
The trio turned and walked slowly away, the crowd whispering murmurs in agreement or in opposition. Tom held T'Lorah in one arm, half over his shoulder with his other arm around B'Elanna's waist while she leant heavily on his shoulder.  
  
"Tom, I was so scared... not by her actions but by that look in her eye. For the first time in a long time I felt that I was truly alone", whispered B'Elanna. "I thought she was going to kill me right then and there - with all those people watching - and I could hardly move."  
  
"It's alright Belle, I love you. I'll always be here for you. You never have to be alone."  
  
And seven years later those prejudices had increased ten-fold and were justified in some people's minds when the Klingons attacked Earth. Looking back he knew this incident was the first sign of what was to follow. A group of people who thought similarly to this woman had massacred three hundred defenceless Klingons, and Tom Paris was the one who was truly alone.  
  
* * *  
PRESENT DAY  
  
"Father", T'Lorah's wavering voice broke Tom's pattern of thought.  
  
He looked up to see she was about to cry, something she had almost never done... it just wasn't part of her character. She ran to his side and hugged him desperately.  
  
"I was thinking about mother."  
  
"So was I."  
  
"How I loved her so."  
  
"As did I. Do I."  
  
"And I don't want to be a captain in a Starfleet that captured and imprisoned her and Greg. And to work along side those who supported their killers."  
  
"It wasn't Starfleet's fault the war occurred. They had to imprison them due to public opinion - it was for their own safety. They would have been hunted down and shot by civilians. At least this way, most of them got to return home when the war ended."  
  
"But not mother and Greg. Why are you defending Starfleet again? Why oh why were they in that camp? Why not one of the others? And anyway, the ones that were released had been so poorly treated, all of them took off for other planets. There's not a single Klingon left on all of Earth, and all officers were released from Starfleet. I don't understand what it means to be Klingon, sometimes I feel so alone without her, without any of them..." T'Lorah buried her head her hands and breathed out deeply.  
  
"It's alright Lorah, I love you. I'll always be here for you. You never have to be alone. Maybe one day you'll understand how the universe works."  
  
"I just want to be with her again, I guess I understand, Dad." But she didn't and couldn't. The young woman was alone and had felt so every night since the news about her mother and the hearing in front of the Starfleet Board.  
  
* * *  
EIGHT YEARS AGO  
  
"T'Lorah Kathryn Paris, daughter of Commander Thomas Paris and Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres-Paris. Despite your Klingon heritage, owing to your tender age, outstanding academic achievements and the connection of a Starfleet Admiral's grandaughter, the board has permitted you to remain a free citizen on Earth. All laws pertaining to full humans will cover you, anyone challenging this will be dealt with accordingly. You will also be allowed to stay with your father, owing to the fact he is a Starfleet officer and a full human. You will be allowed to continue your training with Starfleet and there are no restrictions placed on your rank. All of this will be given to you, on the condition that your name be altered to Kathryn Paris and you are barred from using T'Lorah in any way. This is to protect you. Do you agree to all conditions?"  
  
The ten-year-old stood alone in front of the elite Starfleet board. She wanted to say a lot of things, things she thought the Federation stood for. She thought of her mother and brother in the prison camp and longed to see them just for a moment - even just to say goodbye, if that was what this war was leading to.  
  
"Let me ensure I have the details correct, Sir. So according to my human ancestors and appearance I am allowed to stay on the planet whose disloyal actions have imprisoned members of my family, one of which served you in Starfleet, the other a child, and permitted to train for the force that gave the orders for this to happen? And all I have to do is renounce my name and therefore my heritage?"  
  
"I am not impressed by your forwardness with the board, your choice of words or your tone of voice... but you are young and have been under pressure and you must be nervous. I will forget what you said and pardon you. You are however, essentially correct, so yes. Do you agree to renounce your name and heritage to remain part of Earth and keep your position in society, or else face imprisonment?"  
  
T'Lorah couldn't speak - she didn't want to be imprisoned. She didn't want... she didn't want to reject the name her mother had given her. She didn't want... she couldn't leave her father.  
  
"I'll only ask you once more Kathryn Paris. Do you choose to renounce your Klingon heritage and avoid imprisonment?"  
  
"Yes" she replied weakly.  
  
The Starfleet admiral flinched, he looked almost surprised. 'Mustn't be as Klingon as we thought' he wondered, before regaining his composure.  
  
"Very well. If ever you go against this ruling, you know the consequences."  
  
"Yes", she spoke again and quickly wiped a tear from her cheek before the judge could see it. But there was one face on the board who did not miss it and would never forget it. The older, but no less unmistakable face of Admiral Janeway.  
  
* * *  
PRESENT DAY  
  
"I guess I feel as though I betrayed her and all the Klingons who died. I renounced by heritage to save my own behind. I dishonoured our culture in order to follow my dream."  
  
"No. No you didn't T'Lorah. Your mother was never forceful of Klingon heritage on you... she knew it would only hinder your chances of a Starfleet career and negatively affect your thoughts and choices."  
  
"But she used to tell such wonderful things to Greg - I always wanted to know about the Klingon race and now she can never teach me."  
  
"She had to teach Greg... he had to know. He always wanted to leave to join the Klingon force where he fitted in. He was quiet, but he had inner strength. He was never as individualistic as you were. He always wanted just to be... to be accepted. She never wanted it to be a part of your life - it was her decision."  
  
T'Lorah nodded but she still wanted to leave Starfleet. "Maybe I could join the Klingons?"  
  
"Don't Lorah. Don't fool yourself into thinking they'd accept you. You're better off becoming a Starfleet officer - most of them have not gone against Starfleet regulations - they've remained neutral. Don't speak of your heritage and they won't question you. Your life goal has always been to become a Starfleet captain."  
  
There was a pulsing of short sounds as someone activated the door button.  
"Computer, front porch camera on screen."  
  
The computer screen on the wall revealed a woman T'Lorah didn't recognise, but her father obviously did.  
  
"I don't believe it. Computer, open door."  
  
An older woman walked into the front entry. "Mr Paris?"  
  
"Janeway is it really you? After all these years?"  
  
She turned to face him. "It's been too long Tom, must be nearly fourteen years. It's my fault, I know."  
  
"Ma'am I.."  
"Please, it's just Kathryn now."  
  
"Alright - have a seat in here." He led his old captain through to the living room.  
  
"Kathryn, I'm sure you remember my daughter T'Lorah."  
  
T'Lorah got up and moved over to the Admiral.  
  
"I'm sorry, I don't remember you. Both mother and father spoke very highly of you." She knelt with one knee on the ground and bowed her head slightly, in the traditional greeting of an Admiral.  
  
"T'Lorah, I've come here today to speak with you. It's taken me a long time to swallow my guilt and come to see you. The last time I was here you were just four, and had just been accepted into school a year early. I was quite impressed."  
  
T'Lorah smiled gently and moved to a seat between her father and Janeway.  
  
"I was on the board the day your case was tried, T'Lorah. Although having no input into the final decision, they wanted to imprison you on Earth until the disputes were over, they only decided to let you stay with..."  
"Permission to speak freely, Admiral?" T'Lorah interrupted.  
"Lorah don't interupt!" Tom exclaimed.  
"Sorry Admiral..."  
"It's okay...", she said and fingered the uniform as if it didn't quite fit, "granted."  
  
"I know all that, Admiral. That they wanted to imprison me and only let me go and continue in Starfleet training school after that hearing."  
  
"But that's just it - they never thought you'd deny your heritage. The board will never let you graduate T'Lorah, not while the people still begrudge the Klingon. Your heritage will not be ignored at the end of the four years at Starfleet, you will not be allowed to become a Starfleet officer. They simply won't accept applications from captains for you as part of their crew. I'm sorry. I tried to argue but it was no good. The minute you fail in any aspect of course - miss a single lecture or a single assignment - there will be no leeway. I wish I could have come earlier. I drove past a number of times. I should have come before you began at the Academy a month ago. I thought you might change you mind during the break and not pursue your Starfleet career. My behaviour is inexcusable."  
  
"But they told me... I was... they said their was no restrictions on my rank... that was their terms. I signed..."  
  
"They created another legislation, one that overrules those signed before, no Klingon officers, for fear of spies and traitors."  
  
Tom interrupted "but Captains choose their own crew, the board authorise their choice, yes, but can they really not permit a student like T'Lorah from..."  
  
"No. But the Captain would never fly again. I don't know what to say - you'd make a fine officer T'Lorah Paris, if you're anything like your parents."  
  
T'Lorah nodded, but felt the tears coming on again. "Then what should I do, Admiral?"  
  
"Try your absolute best. Continue what you've been doing and hope the people change their minds and become more tolerant. The Board won't change before then."  
  
Janeway stood up. "I'm sorry, I must go. I'll keep trying T'Lorah. I'm trying to amend the legislation. For you, and for B'Elanna."  
  
As Kathryn exited the room, the sensomatic doors slid open to reveal Sam Tanner, poised to activate the doorbell.  
  
"Hello Sam, what are you doing here?" questioned a surprised Janeway.  
  
"Admiral Janeway?" asked Sam.  
  
"Tom, T'Lorah, this is Captain Chakotay's nephew. I visited his family last year. Has your family moved from Denver?"  
  
"Just me, to attend Starfleet academy. I'm staying with my father's family."  
  
"I guess you're a friend of T'Lorah's then?"  
  
"Ah, sort of..." he managed.  
  
"I am named after Admiral Janeway. My parents were under her command on her ship, with your uncle, I guess", T'Lorah said uneasily.  
  
"On Voyager?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
The four stood uncomfortably for a moment, as each comprehended the new information.  
  
"I'd better be off. I'll call again soon Tom. Remember what I said T'Lorah." She left through the open door, climbed into her own hoverdome (one she received as a Starfleet admiral) and hummed away into the afternoon sky.  
  
"I think I'll replicate myself some dinner", Tom said, then headed upstairs and away from the replicator. Sam stepped inside and the door hissed shut behind him.  
  
"Kathryn - T'Lorah, is it?"  
  
"Yes. But don't use it outside my house."  
  
"I want to apologise for before. It's not that I think any less of you for being Klingon - I don't even hate the Klingon - it's just drilled so heavily into us at school and Training school."  
  
"I know. I had to endure those lessons too. I didn't think it was very Starfleet. They didn't actually say the Klingon were a bad race, but that we had to be wary of them, they were untrustworthy, bloodthirsty, determined and to be feared. They taught us to fear them - to bound together and use all force against them to protect ourselves."  
  
"That's exactly it."  
  
"I sat through the same lessons, Sam. Every second I sat there, pretending to believe everything they were teaching. I never understood how it could be true. I'd only ever known one Klingon, and she was my mother. She never raised a hand to me at all, so I assumed the tutors were mistaken. Never-the-less, I wrote reports on Klingon defence weaknesses and primary attack formations."  
  
"I can't imagine it."  
  
"I don't have to."  
  
There was an uncomfortable silence between the two which lasted only seconds but, at least to T'Lorah, it seemed like hours and she couldn't resist saying something.  
  
"My mother spoke very highly of your uncle. He was a good man - an understanding man. They were best friends, I think. I remember her talking about him once..." (she closed her eyes and probed her carefully filed memories, trying to remember the exact words) "He rescued me from the darkest point in my life, restored my standing in the universe and allowed me to achieve my life ambition. I am forever indebted to him."  
  
She opened her eyes and found herself staring into Sam's.  
"He didn't like to speak of your mother. He hated Starfleet for what they did to her. He even resigned from Starfleet and convinced my mother - his sister - that there was a better life for us away from the spaceports. He tried to talk me out of attending the Academy but didn't stop me either. He kind of lost it. He felt so guilty and he couldn't even bring himself to contact your father. I knew I heard his name before, I just couldn't place it."  
  
T'Lorah nodded, lost in her own thoughts, trying to recall the memories of her and her mother together, but they seemed to be fading at such a rapid rate and she cursed herself for forgetting them.   
  
"T'Lorah, can I take you to a holo-show tonight? I've been wanting to watch that knew Bajoran one."  
  
"I'm not sure if I can afford the time - they're waiting for me to fail so they can expel me from the Academy."  
  
"It won't be a late night, besides - we're ahead anyway."  
  
"You don't understand..."  
  
"But I do! With your Klingon heritage and with the Starfleet Board so affected by people's opinions, I do."  
  
But T'Lorah knew he didn't. No one knew what failure in the Academy meant to her. Even Janeway was closer to understanding her than her own father did.  
"Alright Sam. As long as we go now and are back by nine. I've got to draw a diagram of the warp engine for class tomorrow."  
  
* * *  
  
Two weeks later and Kathryn's engineering class was awaiting the results of the test on the warp engine. Even Kathryn admitted it hadn't been an easy test, with all facets of the topic being tested to the nth degree. This was her first chance to show the teacher - to show everyone - what she was capable of. She had heeded the admiral's warning and had quizzed herself night and day on the workings of each element - she not only had to pass like the rest of class - she had to soar.  
  
"The results, on the whole, were quite disappointing. I know it will take some time to get back into studying. How about doing less celebrating and more studying? Especially those of you taking the extension courses for better qualifications. Those places are limited and you have been chosen for them, make the most of your situate. However, the top mark in First Year was awarded to a cadet from this tutor group, Kathryn Paris with a score of 98."  
Perhaps the cadets clapped, Kathryn couldn't remember. She stood up to receive the padd back from the commander and sat down. She wasn't in shock but...  
  
"I'd like to see you after class, Kathryn." She nodded.  
  
"Only three students achieved over 90, the other two were from different groups. Then was Ferreira with 86, Kent with 82..."  
  
His voice droned on and on until he held up the final padd. "Cadet Rooney, stand please." A shaky Rooney stood quickly. "A 26 is not sufficient Miss Rooney. Tell me it will not happen again."  
  
"It won't Commander. I'm out of here. This Starfleet Academy was never my idea, my father, Sir. He only made Lieutenant, Sir and, well, who really cares about warp engine carbonators? Good luck to those of you who do."   
She got and left without looking back. Kathryn glanced downwards - there was no life for her outside Starfleet. Whether you wanted action or the research facilities, it was where the opportunities were. If you weren't involved with Starfleet you would never make your mark in the universe.  
  
"One down, 299 to go", the Commander smiled. Starfleet only want those who are committed to achieving high standards - there are no room for twenty-sixes. See you all next week when I'll distribute this term's assignment. Kathryn?"  
  
Kathryn was beaming. She held the exam padd tightly - she had done it. She'd really shown them all. Maybe Janeway was right, but she was top of First Year and that was all that mattered.  
  
"Miss Paris. There is some suspicion surrounding your score."  
  
"Pardon, Commander?" Kathryn asked, her smile fading.  
  
"This test was set by me, Cadet. It was a challenging test. The nearest score to yours was Tanner with a 93. A lot of the material wasn't taught in great detail in class - it was from the warp engine compendium given out at the start of the course. It was a good thirty screens long. You couldn't possible remember it all."  
  
"But I studied it, Sir."  
  
"Students are supposed to do poorly in the first test to make sure they work hard the rest of the year. How did you manage such a score?"  
  
"Permission to speak freely, Sir?"  
  
"Granted."  
  
"Are you accusing me of cheating?"  
  
"They are your words, Paris."  
  
"Sir - I've studied the warp engine since I began in school. My mother was chief engineer on a Federation Starship, she taught me all about the warp engine, the plasma and the coils before I even got a scholarship to Training school. I've always craved information - I have an almost photographic memory. I've also studied the warp drive extensively in gifted programs during the summer and took a specialist elite course in my year break. I'm in an extension engineering class and constructed a model of the warp engine last year that is still suspended from the roof of my bedroom. I knew every single question in that test Commander. Ask me anything, I've known it all for years", she took a shallow breath at the end of her spiel - she'd said too much and they both knew it.  
  
"Very well, Cadet. Why didn't you score 100 then?"  
  
"I don't know Sir. What did I get wrong?"  
  
"You wrote", he said almost proudly, "that the operating speed of the warp engine can be enhanced by a series of regular electrostatic bursts of radum."  
  
"Radum, Sir? I believe I wrote electrostatic bursts of radium, which is correct."  
  
"But it doesn't say radium, it says radum."  
  
Kathryn took the padd from the Commander. Looking at her entered response, it appeared as though the i in radium had merged into the d, making it look like it wasn't there at all.  
  
"But, Sir..."  
  
"Are you denying that you entered radum, Paris?"  
  
"Yes Commander. I entered radium it just looks like radum."  
  
"So you entered the word radum in response to this question."  
  
"No Sir. I knew the answer to be radium and that is what I entered."  
  
"It says radum, Cadet. Radum is what you entered. Radum is not the answer. What I have to mark you on is what you enter in. Do you deny that this word reads - right here and now - reads 'radum'."  
  
Kathryn looked again at the word. It hardly mattered - she'd come top anyway. And it did look like radum.   
  
"No Sir."  
  
"What was that, Paris?"  
  
"Although I wrote radium, that is not the answer you can determine from the padd."  
  
His eyes scanned her face, searching for any signs of sarcasm or arrogance. Finding nothing, he continued, "You can go Kathryn, congratulations on your score."  
  
She left quickly and as she neared the door she saw Sam waiting for her.  
"How'd you do?"  
  
"A 98, top of the year."  
  
"Yeah thought you might. I got second. Why do you look so disappointed? What did you get wrong?"  
  
She scanned through the type on her exam padd, indicated where to look and handed it too him.  
"You wrote radium? But, Kathryn, that's right!"  
  
"I know. He told me I entered... I don't want to go into it." She was so upset she had to turn away from him. "He's acting on orders from the Board, I don't know, to unnerve me probably... I..."  
Sam took her hand, then - sensing she didn't mind - put his arm around her shoulders and began to walk her home. 'I didn't believe you Admiral, but how right you were - they're not going to let her get away with anything' Sam thought, disdainfully.   
  
* * *  
  
Continued in T'LORAH'S TALE - PART 3. Hope you're enjoying this! 


	3. T'Lorah's Tale - Part 3

See Part 1 for story information and disclaimers.  
  
T'LORAH'S TALE - PART 3/3  
(This is the final part and it takes place a few years after Part 2, and both Sam and T'Lorah are nearing their final Starfleet exams.)  
  
Kathryn and Sam and walking down the street after Academy, holding hands and talking quietly.  
  
"Why I am still fighting this blatant prejudice? It's such as uncivilised practice, and one that was eliminated in the years before the Klingon War. Why did the people of Earth allow it creep back in to society?"  
  
"Because they're running scared. The Klingon are an unpredictable threat to their survival, and they fear their capabilities."   
  
"I feel so happy on one side, Sam. On that side, we're nearing the end of our Academy days and closer to positions on starships. But I'm still so confused and sad. I miss my mother more than ever and father is sinking deeper and deeper inside his remorse - he can't even take care of himself anymore. The other day I found a holoprogram he'd been working on. I ran it myself and it was a hologram of my mother! He tried to move on without her, Sam, he really did. But recreating an imitation of her will not help him to progress forward with his life. Now he cries pathetically all the time. He's cold when the temperature is stable then in an instant he'll be sweating all over. I administer medicine that allows him to sleep - then he'll be out of it for days! And of course, we will be separated soon on different missions. Has it been worth it? I'm so tired of fighting for equality so mercifully - it's like I owe them something. But I'll never stop fighting it. I'll never let it beat me. Never."  
  
"You're almost there, Kathryn! You've almost done it and you'll show everyone who ever doubted you. You will be the one to change them and make them start thinking that maybe, just maybe, they could have been wrong."  
  
"But I'm still trying to come to grips with things that confused me when I was eleven! I haven't even spoken to a Klingon since I was ten years old. I don't know what Klingon habits I'm going to adopt or take after, what rituals I'm supposed to have performed. And everyday I train to work for the people who took away people I loved and everything that made sense. My mother spent her whole life attempting to suppress her Klingon side and closed herself off from people to prevent them from seeing it. I'm going to spend my life going after people, attempting to understand what it is I've suppressed."  
  
He looked into her turbulent brown eyes that he had loved ever since she glanced up from her computer on his first day in Extension Engineering. He'd often comforted her through her depression but he'd still never seen her cry. It wasn't almost as if she couldn't - or wouldn't let herself.  
  
"You've always known you wanted to fly Starfleet missions, right?"  
  
"Always."  
  
"Did your father convince you it was the best thing for you?"  
  
"No, no. He was pushed into Starfleet by his family traditions - he wanted me to do whatever I wanted. I think he'd prefer it if I kept my feet on the ground. I tell you why I want it so badly. I want to fly away from here. I want to launch myself into the stars and fly far away from everything that holds me back, and maybe, just maybe I'll find someone like me. Someone who had been through the same things and we can talk for hours and hours, then I want to come back here - back to my homeworld - and find the person I want to be with for the rest of my life and live in peace amongst people who accept me for me."  
  
"That's some dream, Kathryn. But if you can, I want you to change one thing."  
  
"And that is?"  
  
"Let me go with you… in case you never make it home to me."  
  
He gently kissed her cheek, but suddenly she lurched forward in a state of shock.  
  
"Excuse me! Excuse me - please wait, please!" Kathryn called in the direction of a creature just up ahead of them, as she ran up to him. It spun around to reveal just what she'd been too desperate to hope for. It was a Klingon. A Klingon being, here in San Francisco.  
  
"I'm not here to listen to more of your ridicule, I am here on official business. Starfleet is aware of my presence. I am unarmed", croaked the Klingon.  
  
"No it's not that. I am... I am Klingon, Sir, if I might just ask you a few questions. There is no information of the whole of Earth about your - our - race except a few battle histories and techniques at Starfleet. I just want to know about some cultural rituals if I might experience them - might I join the Klingon?"  
  
She knew she was asking some deep questions that she could be seriously in trouble for but she was so comforted by his face that she could hardly hold back from hugging him - but she knew enough of Klingon personality traits to know that wasn't at all appropriate.  
  
"I'm not sure I should be talking to you, you human."  
  
"My grandmother was a full-blooded Klingon. My name is T'Lorah! I am Klingon, please you simply must believe me!"  
  
The next thing she felt was not an overwhelming sense of relief as he began to explain everything she'd longed to understand for so many years as she had expected. It was a familiar blow to the back of the head and the harsh reality of the ground meeting her nose before and Sam's voice yell out in protest, and then everything faded into darkness.   
  
* * *  
  
"Ms Kathryn Paris."   
  
Kathryn could hear a man's deep voice snarling at her from a long way off. She followed his voice instinctively, pulling herself out of unconsciousness. As if she suddenly emerged from a tunnel, she could focus on bright images around her. She felt she was being held up under both arms - she tried to move, but her legs were paralysed and felt as though every skerrick of energy had been zapped from her.  
  
"Cadet Paris can you hear me?"  
  
Kathryn managed a nod, before the Feds released her. She stumbled forward onto her knees and quickly realised she was positioned in front of the Starfleet Board once again. And just as before, she faced them alone.  
  
"You are hereby resigned from the Starfleet Academy and forbidden from commencing there again until this business with the Klingon race is settled - either by war or an unconditional treaty - and we can trust you in the sky. You will be released into the custody of your father on the justification that you are the only family he has and he is in a frail state of health. You will be granted two weeks holiday from Earth each year on a local space station, where each morning you will required to present yourself to a Starfleet-approved space station official."  
  
"What? No..." was all she could manage through the intense pain in her head. Suddenly it all seemed to melt away when she saw Admiral Janeway looking down on her, urging her to protest.  
  
"Under what charge?"  
  
"Federation security risk. Take her from the courtroom and release her into her father's custody."  
  
The two men came forward and picked her up off the floor and led her towards the door.  
  
"I would have been the best damn Captain you ever had!" Kathryn cried in anguish.  
  
The Admiral signalled for her to be brought back and she was dropped on her knees again in front of the Board.  
  
"I have no doubt you would have been Ms Paris, but one cadet is not worth risking Federation stability. Your brain is too interested in Klingon activities - you are a security risk to Starfleet."  
  
"It is not a crime to want to understand one's body and one's feelings - that is the only reason I approached that, that, being." At this point she'd realised it had all been a plot to trap her. I would never betray my homeworld", she said, bitterly. "I have been emersed in Starfleet operations since I was four years old. I was even born on a Federation Starship."  
  
"We have it on good authority that your brain is very Starfleet, supposed to be graduating top of your class, I hear."  
  
"Yes Sir. I had been working towards this since before the Klingon War. I wanted to achieve top Starfleet honours, nothing less. I am no more Klingon than you, Admiral."  
  
The few spectators and some Board members gasped quietly at her bold remark.  
  
"You certainly have the academic talent and credentials to achieve your dream, Kathryn Paris. Just as your paternal ancestors have done before you. You have inherited their passion. However, it is not your head that will betray you. It is your heart and what it feels towards your maternal ancestors."  
  
"Are you telling me I'm too Klingon to be human? Because I'm also too human to be Klingon. Neither culture allows for a median, and yet here I am. I am the median. You cannot deny it, I'm standing here in front of you!" Then, attempting to cool her temper and sound mature, "I would have served you honourably."  
  
"Honour is a very Klingon word."  
  
"Yes it is. And I learnt it from you and from my father and from the Academy."  
  
"We are doing this to protect you, Kathryn. If they ever capture you they will use your heritage against you and the Federation. Better you no nothing."  
  
Kathryn knew it was no use fighting the Board anymore. Tears began falling silently down her cheeks. It was an unfamiliar sensation that brought to the surface all her years of loneliness and isolation. Except that now she was more bewildered than ever, and her final hope for a normal existence lay in pieces all around her, invisible to those who had destroyed it.  
  
"What will happen to me now, then?" she almost whispered.  
  
"The sentence stands."  
  
Kathryn nodded, the information slowly sinking in and dragging her down with it. "If it pleases the Board, may I solicit two amendments to the sentence?"  
  
He conferred with the members beside him and looked behind for support.  
  
"And they are?"  
  
"That I be allowed to sit my finals and graduate from Starfleet Academy - in my correct finishing position and gain the rank of ensign - with the rest of my class. It is not my fault you did not remove me before now. I would like to complete the course. Of course, I will never fly mission with a Starship crew until your conditions are met."  
  
"That is reasonable - we will consider it, and inform you at a later date."  
  
"The second, is not an amendment, more a request."  
  
"Continue."  
  
"That if I ever marry a full-blooded human and our children have no defining Klingon characteristics, they will never be prosecuted as I have been and may pursue any career in any field with no limitations on rank."  
  
"Also, your children must never have contact with a Klingon or one with a knowledge of Klingon culture, other than yourself, and you must not make them aware of your history, until such time as the current situation can be rectified. Do you concur?"  
  
"That I do and I am grateful."  
  
"Therefore I will uphold your request."  
  
"Thank you."   
  
"Release Kathryn Paris into her father's custody."  
  
She had fought hard, but she had still lost the most important thing. They'd taken away her capacity to dream. She'd only ever had two dreams. To be a Starfleet Captain and to understand herself, both of which were now further away than ever.  
  
* * *  
  
Ensign Kathryn Paris smiled ruefully to herself. It was easy to admit that this was the happiest she'd been since her mother's death. Her fiancee gently pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead. "I love you T'Lorah Paris", Sam whispered. And how she loved him to hear him speak her true name!  
  
She glanced at her father who had begun the painful road to recovering from his grief - and was much better for it - but he was not perceptive enough to see through his daughter's false happiness. She, like her father, had only being going through the motions of life these last years - she had thrown herself into her study in an effort to blot out the pain and prevent anyone from getting too close. And after all that work, she was still a nobody.   
  
Sam was flying his first long-range mission soon on a research vessel and as his wife, Kathryn had been permitted to go too, providing she was confined to their quarters and few other areas and forbidden to go near any controls. She could hardly believe they would be allowing her near a ship.   
  
Even here, sitting in Sam's arms with her beloved father next to her and surrounded by their friends, no one understood the turmoil within her heart or the constant inner battle of her emotions. Her mother had struggled to come to terms with the same feelings, but at least she'd known of her heritage. Kathryn knew she'd be lucky to ever fly a mission, let alone make Captain. At least she'd wouldn't until people changed. Then, perhaps she could go by the name her mother gave her. As a human who had tried to forget her heritage and was held back because of it anyway, she couldn't perceive where she fit into the universe. She knew that the people, particularly one person, who could have eased her confusion, had been victims of a violent war that, in the end, had left no one.   
No one anyway, except a partially Klingon girl who despite all appearances, was desperately alone.  
  
  
"This is most strange, that she whom but even now was your best object, the argument of your praise, the balm of your age, the best, the dearest, should in this trice of time commit a thing so monstrous to dismantle so many folds of favour. Surely her offence must be of such unnatural degree that monsters it, or your-vouched affection fall into taint; which to believe of her must be a faith that reason without miracle should never plant in me."  
- William Shakespeare, King Lear.  
  
  
Well, there it is - my very first piece of fan fiction. It ended up being much longer than I thought. I really hope you enjoyed it - please review my story. I guarantee I'll read & review at least one of your pieces in return!  
  
COPYRIGHT 1999 KATE DAVIS 


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